Chicago-based Egyptological news blog that features all the latest news from Egypt, Ancient Egypt, and the field of Egyptology around the world - recent discoveries, updates on current archaeological endeavors, new exhibits and findings - for Egyptologists, students, and amateur enthusiasts.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Ann gives her reactions to five of her favorites from the early days of Egyptology, from the archives at EES on Flickr (and you can read my comment at her blog post to boot lol).

When Egyptology was in its infancy, the survey techniques were not yet well developed (consider the fact that Belzzoni must have destroyed dozens of unidentified mummies as he crawled over them and had Theodore Davis and Edward Ayrton took a little more time and done a better job of excavating KV55, it would be less mysterious) and it's very interesting to realize the dramatic difference between then and now. The same goes for the examination of mummies, when archaeologists discovered them: a modern Egyptologist, anthropologist or any other "ologist" would gasp at the thought of conducting a "mummy unwrapping party" (how Victorian!), where you'd have to actually take the mummy's bandages off!

Personally, my favorite picture is of John Pendlebury, one of the more charming and exciting archaeologists--that goes for his glass eye too! lol Can you believe the gall (I use that term with loving admiration) of this man! Why take a boring picture of an artifact when you can jazz the photo up by modeling it yourself?!